Will You Love Me?
by sycoandcrazy.inc
Summary: Shiori finds out Kurama's secret in the worst possible way. Will she still love Kurama after what has happened, or will she reject him completely? Written for a challenge by Syco.
1. Chapter 1

Shiori hummed to herself as she watered the flowers planted in front of her house porch. It was a beautiful day, warm with clear skies and a brisk wind. It was a beautiful day, meant only for good things. Shiori smiled when a bird landed on the porch railings and chirped its song; the moment was just perfect.

"Excuse me, ma'am."

Shiori turned at the sound and saw a little old man politely standing at the edge of her yard. "My car broke down at the end of the street, and I need to call my son to come get me," he said, looking sheepish. "Would you mind letting me use your phone?"

Shiori set down her watering can on the ground. "Of course not, come on in."

Shiori led the man inside to the kitchen where the house phone was. "The phone is right over there. Would you like something to drink?" Shiori asked, moving towards the fridge.

Low laughter echoed from behind, and Shiori paused. That laugh didn't sound like anything that should pass an old man's lips. She turned and her eyes widened with horror when she saw the old man. His skin was boiling and changing to a dark blue color; Shiori could hear his bones cracking as he grew taller and broader. Fangs sprouted out of his mouth and his eyes bled red.

"Stupid woman," the thing snarled. "Don't you know better than to let strangers in your house when you're all alone?"

Shiori's body trembled with fear, her mind screamed for her to run, but the creature stood between her and the door. What was it, what could she do?

Almost lazily, the thing reached out and slapped Shiori across the face. Shiori's head jerked and pain exploded along her jaw. She stumbled to her knees, a cry of pain tearing from her lips. She felt it grab her hair and pull her head back so she had no choice but to look up at it.

"Humans are so fragile," the thing mused with a wicked grin. "I don't know why Kurama ever leaves you alone."

Who was Kurama? What was it talking about?

"I don't…know any Kurama," Shiori gasped out. Maybe it would leave her alone.

The thing paused, and then it started laughing. "You don't know? He never told you who he is? No wonder you trusted me!"

It yanked her up, making Shiori scream again; it felt as though he was going to tear out all her hair by the roots. It dragged her by her hair for a short distance, and then yanked her up and slammed her down on the table. The monster held one hand over Shiori and glowing bands of light wrapped around her body, tying her down to the table.

"I wonder how long it will be until Kurama gets here," the thing said. "Still, until he shows up, I can have fun with you."

The thing touched her face with one finger, and dragged it down from her temple to her chin, leaving a thin but painful cut along her face. Shiori gasped with pain, and it grinned. "I want you to scream for me."

Its hand wrapped around Shiori's throat, squeezing painfully. "Go on, woman, scream."

Shiori choked for air, wanted to scream, if only to make it stop choking her, but unable to get any air to scream with.

"What's the matter?" it asked her. "If you want me to stop, all you have to do is scream."

Shiori's lungs burned with the need for air, and she opened her mouth trying desperately to make a noise, any noise, _if only it would stop_!

It loosened its grip finally, right when Shiori thought she'd been about to black out. She gasped air down her burning throat, grateful for the reprieve, however momentary it may be. The thing walked away from her and started opening kitchen drawers and rummaging through them.

Trying to push past the pain and the mind numbing fear, Shiori desperately racked her mind for some way to get out of this. Maybe if she got it talking it would leave her alone long enough that someone could call the police, or come save her, or _something_.

"Wh-why are you doing this to me?" Shiori gasped through her bruised throat.

"It's nothing personal," the thing said, still rummaging through her drawers. "You see, I'm after Kurama; you're just the entertainment until he shows up."

"Who is Kurama?" Shiori managed.

It turned around then, holding one of her best cutting knives. Shiori's eyes blurred with tears at the sight, and she was so terrified she almost missed what the monster said next. "Kurama is your son."

It walked to the side of the table and used the knife to cut away the sleeve of Shiori's shirt, making Shiori whimper in fear. It ran the blade up and down her arm without actually hurting her, but the suspense alone was enough to get Shiori in tears, so she couldn't see its face when the steel finally bit into her skin.

Shiori screamed and tried to jerk away, causing the strange bands of energy that held her down to send electric shocks through her body. Dimly, Shiori could hear the thing laughing in the background behind her screams.

It finally, _finally,_ stopped, and Shiori sagged with relief even though her arm was still a burning mess of pain.

"Want to see what I did?" the thing asked.

Shiori kept her eyes tightly shut; she wouldn't look, she _wouldn't_.

It grabbed her head and twisted her face towards her arm. "_Look_, or I'm going to start taking your fingers next."

Shiori opened her eyes, and her stomach churned at the sight. The thing had carved the kanji for 'dinner' in her arm, and surrounded it with spiraling lines.

"Isn't it cute?" the thing asked. "And hey, it also lets you know exactly what you're going to be soon."

Shiori fought back bile; the thing _was going to eat her._

"Get away from her!"

Shiori didn't recognize the inhuman voice that snarled those words. The monster looked up and Shiori was sure he grinned, but she still couldn't look at anything but her arm.

"Ah, Kurama, you finally show up," it said. "You are a bit late you know."

"Let her go!"

The thing let her head go, and the energy bands disappeared. It wrapped its fingers around her neck and dragged her up on the table, facing the door. Through her blurry eyes, Shiori was finally able to see that the person was Shuichi, but not like she'd ever seen him before. His face was twisted into a look of such murderous fury that he looked almost as terrifying as the monster that had been torturing her.

"But we've been having so much fun together!" it said. "I think I might like to keep her forever."

Shuichi ground his teeth together, and his hands clenched into fists. "Release her," he growled.

"I guess I'm not going to have any fun with you if I don't," the monster said.

He tossed Shiori to the side, and she slammed into the fridge. Stars shot in front of her eyes, and she had to blink them away before she could see what was happening in the kitchen. Shuichi was fighting the creature, and at the moment Shiori couldn't really tell who was winning.

Then Shuichi jumped back, putting a bit of distance between him and the thing. From nowhere, Shuichi pulled out a whip and lashed it at the monster. It wrapped around the creature and then Shuichi yanked on it, cutting the thing into bloody pieces.

Blood splattered over the room, and Shiori. The warm, sticky mess dripped down her body, spreading in a pool on the floor. Shiori leaned over and puked, unable to stand the sight any more. She felt Shuichi gently wrap an arm around her waist, supporting her. Terrified and sickened, Shiori struggled to try and get away from him. "What are you?" she demanded.

"Mother, you're hurt, let me help," Shuichi said, trying to keep her still.

"_What are you?"_ she asked one last time, before breaking down in sobs.

She didn't resist when she felt Shuichi start to lead her out the kitchen. Somewhere between the kitchen and her room, Shiori finally passed out, and she didn't want to wake up again for a long time.

* * *

Kurama felt sick and angry every time he walked past the kitchen. It had been three days since the attack, and other than cleaning up the mess, Kurama had refused to go in there. He ordered take out for their meals.

Shiori had yet to leave her room. She barely moved, and she barely spoke to Kurama. Her condition scared him; would Shiori be able to recover from this? He had managed to heal her physical wounds, but there was no way he could erase the memories of her torture, no matter how much he desperately wanted to.

And now Shiori knew what he was, knew he wasn't human, but she didn't _understand._ Could he make her understand before she rejected him, or would she keep Kurama at arm's length forever?

He knocked on her bedroom door before opening it. "Mother?" he called gently.

Shiori was staring out the window when he walked in, and she turned to look at him with dead eyes.

"Are you hungry, Mother?" he asked. He knew better than to mention the word "dinner."

Slowly she nodded. "I think…I want to go out tonight," Shiori said slowly.

Kurama felt hope surge through him; this was the first time she'd asked to leave her room, much less the house. Maybe she could get better.

They left about fifteen minutes later and walked into town. Kurama picked out a small cheerful looking café, with lots of people. He hoped that the happy atmosphere would help her relax.

They got a table and a bubbly waitress skipped over to take their orders. Shiori ordered a salad and a glass of water while Kurama ordered a bowl of soup and tea. They still hadn't spoken much to each other, but that was okay for right now. Kurama was finally feeling hopeful that Shiori might actually accept him.

Kurama let the flow of noises rush over him, the chattering of the conversations, the laughter, the clink of dishes, and the ticking of a clock. The whole atmosphere was so open and friendly that he found himself relaxing while he watched Shiori. Her eyes were sweeping over the people, and there was actually a small smile on her face.

"Mother," Kurama said.

She looked at him and her smile dimmed. Which hurt, a lot. But Kurama would bear it, for now. He didn't have much of a choice.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said. He wanted to know if she still loved him after what had happened. He thought she might, but he wanted, _needed,_ to hear it from her.

Then the ticking stopped.

And the world exploded.

Fire bloomed all around them, glass cut into Kurama's skin as the force from the explosion slammed him into the back wall. It took him a minute to recover, but when he did only one thought was on his mind.

_Mother! Where is Mother?_

Kurama stumbled to his feet and picked his way through the crowed, ignoring the screams for help, because none of them were Shiori.

"Mother!" he yelled. "Where are you?"

Either she couldn't hear him, or he couldn't hear her over the ringing in his ears and the other screams all around. After what felt like a lifetime, he found her. A pained cry tore from his throat, and he dropped to his knees beside her.

_No, no, no, no, NO!_

Kurama scooped up her limp body and held her close. She was badly burned, and her body was studded with glass. Frantically, Kurama felt for a pulse.

There was none.

_NO!_

This couldn't be happening, it _couldn't._ He had _saved her_, she had been getting better, _she never said whether she loved him._

_It's my fault, my fault, I brought her here, it's _my fault.

She was gone, she was _dead_, and there was nothing left for him.

* * *

AN-Right...Don't kill me for this one, please. The ONLY reason I wrote this was because Syco told me I was incapable of writing a story that didn't have a happy ending. I set out to prove her wrong. I think I succeeded. Anyways...let me know what you all thought in a review. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this piece since I never write things like this (though I was told I wrote a very good torture scene). Now I'm going to hug something soft and fluffy to make me feel better.


	2. Chapter 2

Life moved on, but Kurama sat still. Grief tore at him, freezing the heart that Shiori's love had awakened. His days were now spent sitting in his room, staring at Shiori's picture.

Downstairs he could hear movement in the house. Shiori's relatives had come for her funeral, and Kurama resented their presence in his house. Shiori's family had abandoned her when she'd married Kurama's human father, someone Shiori's parents had greatly disapproved of. They hadn't even come when Shiori had been sick in the hospital; why come now when they couldn't do anything? Kurama wished they would have just stayed away.

There was a knock on his door, shaking Kurama out of his reverie. "What?" he asked.

The door opened, and Shiori's elder sister stuck her head inside. Kurama hadn't bothered to remember her name, or any of the others for that matter. It just hadn't seemed important. "Breakfast is ready, Shuichi," she said.

And? Why was he supposed to care about that? But Kurama knew they wouldn't leave him alone unless he ate something, so he got up and followed his aunt down the stair and to the table where everyone else was already seated. The gathering included his grandparents, Shiori's sister and brother, their spouses, and several cousins, though Kurama didn't know who's children exactly they were.

There was some talk around the table, but Kurama made no effort at all to follow it. He was absorbed in his thoughts, reliving the last few days of Shiori's life over and over in his mind.

"Are you listening to me, Shuichi?" his grandmother's shrill voice finally broke through the wall of solitude that Kurama had thrown up.

Kurama switched his gaze from his plate to the old woman.

"I said that from now on until you are eighteen, you shall live with me and your grandfather," the woman said, though she looked less than pleased with her words. "It is our duty to raise you for that long at least."

Live with the people who had cast aside the most wonderful woman ever to be born? Not likely.

"I will not," Kurama said.

"You don't have a choice," his grandfather said. "You're too young to live on your own."

Too young…the absurdity almost made Kurama want to laugh. He was older than all of them put together. Why was he even here, sitting at this table with them? He didn't care about them, and they didn't care about him. What was the point?

What was the point of anything without Shiori?

Kurama stood up and walked away from the table.

"Where do you think you're going, Shuichi?" Shiori's mother called.

Kurama paused for only a moment at her question. "I am not Shuichi Minamino," he said and left the house.

And he wasn't Shuichi. Not anymore. Shuichi had died the day that Shiori had died. All that was left now was the empty monster; all that was left was Yoko Kurama, and Yoko had no need for human ties.

He roamed the streets, restless, angry and grieving. Despite all his cunning, all his power, there was nothing he could do to make anything better.

"Did you hear?" a high school girl nearby said to her friend. "They caught the guy that bombed all those cafés last week."

"Seriously?" her friend responded.

"Seriously," the girl said. "His name is Jun Hohai. They've got him locked up in that prison on the edge of town."

"Did he say why he did it?" her friend asked eagerly.

"It was something about not being happy with the way Japan is today," the first girl said. "He wanted to make some kind of statement or something."

"Creepy," her friend said with a shudder.

Kurama moved past them when he'd heard what he wanted to know. So that was why Shiori had died; some insane man had decided that he wasn't happy with the government and was going to blow stuff up, because somehow that was going to make everything better.

_No one can make this better._

No, it couldn't get any better. But Kurama could make it a whole lot worse.

* * *

Yusuke felt sick as he ran as fast as he could beside Hiei and Kuwabara, trying desperately to make it to the prison in time.

_Please don't let us be too late, please…_

Botan had showed up frantically telling them that Kurama planned to murder the man that had caused Shiori's death. Yusuke could understand that, he really could. If someone had killed his mother he'd want to rip their head off. But if Kurama killed his man that would mean an eternity locked away in Spirit World prison, and Yusuke refused to let that happen to one of his best friends.

They made it to the gates of the prison, and halted at the threshold.

"Good God," Kuwabara gasped, but there was nothing good about what they saw there.

Bodies of the guards lay scattered on the ground, cut into pieces and laying in pools of their own blood. There was no doubt in any of their minds as to who or what had done this; you just couldn't forget the way a corpse that had been torn apart by Kurama's rose whip looked.

_We're too late._

Too late to save these innocent people caught in the crossfire. Too late to save Kurama. Whether or not Kurama killed the bomber, he was going to go to Spirit World jail. There was no getting around this.

"We have to hurry," Kuwabara said. "There might be more guards inside."

They ran inside the building, and found that there had been more guards, but Kurama had killed them too.

_I can't believe Kurama did this,_ Yusuke thought. _This isn't like him at all._

It wasn't hard to track down Kurama. They just followed the trail of dead bodies. Surprisingly the prisoners they all passed on the way were completely silent. They must have been smart enough not to try and draw attention to themselves.

When they found Kurama he was standing in front of a cell. Yusuke couldn't see inside the cell, but he could hear the man inside begging for mercy.

"Kurama, stop!" Yusuke yelled.

With eerie calm Kurama turned his head to look at them. There was no real expression on Kurama's face, just this cold _emptiness_ that scared the crap out of Yusuke, especially in light of the mass murder Kurama had just committed. How could someone do something like that and then look like they felt nothing?

"Why should I?" Kurama asked. He had no right to sound that relaxed when he spoke! "He is a murderer, Yusuke. Until he is dead, he will likely continue to kill. I am already going to go to jail; what does it matter if I kill him first and then let you take me in?"

As creepy as Kurama was being, his argument actually…Kind of made sense. What would it matter, if this one guy, this monster who had killed so many innocent people, died?

"It matters," Kuwabara said, his spirit sword flaring to life. "It matters because you're just like him!"

Kurama's face darkened, just a little.

"How many parents have you slaughtered today?" Kuwabara demanded. "How many people have you widowed, huh? How many innocent people did you just murder? Do you think this would make Shiori proud?"

At the mention of Shiori, Kurama _snapped._ His face twisted with rage, Kurama lashed out with his rose whip at Kuwabara.

_He won't be able to dodge!_

There was a clang, and Hiei was there, Kurama's whip wrapped around Hiei's sword. "Enough, Kurama. It's over."

Kurama yanked his whip back and Hiei's sword fell in pieces on the ground. "Not yet," Kurama snarled.

_I can't let him hurt them._

It's what Kurama, their friend, would have wanted.

"Spirit gun!"

The blast lifted Kurama off his feet and knocked him through the cinderblock back wall. The three rushed out into the open air to find Kurama trying to struggle to his feet. The blast hadn't been strong enough to kill him, but it had done some damage.

"Give it up," Yusuke said. "We won't let you do this."

_We won't let you hurt yourself anymore than you already have._

"Just let me kill him," Kurama said, through gritted teeth. "Just him, and I'll let you take me to jail."

"We can't do that," Yusuke said.

Kurama lunged at them, and seeing the seed in Kurama's hand, Yusuke wisely chose to dodge the attack. Kurama tried to duck back inside the jail, but Hiei knocked him away from the hole in the wall.

"It's over," Hiei said again.

His whole body shaking, Kurama didn't try to get up that time. He just sat there, or for the first time Yusuke could remember, tears rolled down Kurama's face. "Just him," he said. "I just…" He broke off what he was saying as sobs wracked his body.

Yusuke stood there, at a loss as to what to do. He hated this so bad, hated that Shiori had died, hated that Kurama was hurt, that Kurama had snapped and killed so many, and hated that there was nothing he could do to make this better.

_Why did this have to happen? Why?_

There was no good reason, no answer to Yusuke's question. It just had, and Kurama had broken.

"Let's take him in," Yusuke said, sick at heart with the whole mess.

Kurama didn't fight when the pulled him up off the ground, didn't struggle when they took him to Spirit World. He didn't put up any sort of fuss when the SDF came and took him away to a holding cell. Yusuke wished he'd have reacted somehow, given some sign that eventually he'd be okay.

The three Detectives went to Koenma's office. "What's going to happen to him?" Yusuke demanded.

Koenma sat back in his chair, looking grave. "He killed a lot of people, Yusuke."

"I know what he did!" Yusuke snapped. "I want to know what's going to happen to him!"

Koenma sighed, looking like he really didn't want to say anymore about it. "For Kurama's crimes, he will exist in torment for the next two thousand years."

"We're never going to see him again," Kuwabara said. "He might as well be dead."

But he wouldn't be dead; he'd be living in torment.

"I wish there was something I could do," Koenma said. "But this one is out of my hands."

Numb, they returned to Human World. There was no point in staying in Spirit World. They would not be allowed to see Kurama.

_I'm sorry Kurama. There's nothing we can do._

_

* * *

_AN-Written because the other ending felt to sudden. To me, this ending feels a bit more complete. Still depressing though._  
_


End file.
